Internet Viral Marketing
10 Great Tools to Spread Your Business on the Web

How well do you understand internet viral marketing. If you hesitated even just a little, listen up. We are going to blow the lid off this phenomenal way to show off your business. The definition of viral marketing is about to get a whole lot more interesting.

How Many People Would You Like to Reach?

There are about 6.5 billion people in the world today who are somehow and in some way connected to each other. If let’s say only one percent of the earth’s entire population can be your potential customer, how can you reach most of them in a face to face encounter even if that’s the only thing you do in your lifetime? Very nil, you would say.

But the question is, why would you even bother to talk to them individually in this internet age? Almost everything is done over the internet now. You can read news, buy stuff, pay bills, book your flight, troubleshoot cable, phone and internet problems with just a click of a button (like what offshore customer service representatives do for cable companies like Charter, for instance), find a long lost classmate through social networking websites, even find a mate – the possibilities are almost endless. This makes the internet one of the easiest, fastest and most potent tools to reach people and make your business known to them.

How's Your Viral Marketing Campaign Shaping Up?

So, let’s say out of 6.5 billion people, only about 65 million are internet users, and out of that number some 6.5 million are potential users of the services or products you offer. Imagine if you can find a way (viral marketing campaign, anyone?)to lure those many people to your website and get them to buy your products or use your services? You bet it will mean lots of sales for you!

So get comfortable, grab a pen and paper, and start taking notes. You do not want to miss a single tip.

What is internet viral marketing?

Defined simply, internet viral marketing is viral marketing on the internet. It is any marketing strategy geared towards creating awareness exponentially by passing on a promotional message using email, ecards, eBooks, video clips, refer-a-friend, send-an-article, and many more.

1. Internet viral marketing through email. A classic example of this is Hotmail, one of the first web-based email services. They gave away free email addresses and services with each email containing a simple tag at the bottom that says “Get your private free email at http://www.hotmail.com.” The rest, of course, is history. You can make use of your current email list and work on building it every day.

2. Internet viral marketing through eBook and ezine. You can write your own eBook about your own niche or search the internet for one which you can rebrand. When written in an effective and engaging manner, your eBook or ezine will make consumers want to share it with others who in turn will pass it on to others as well.

This article at Ezilon Infobase about ezine advertising and using it to increase traffic to your site will give you some good ideas how you can tap this tool.3. Internet viral marketing through blogging. Writing about your own niche can generate traffic to your site and establish yourself as an expert in the industry. Adding an RSS feed will enable readers to subscribe to your blog and be quickly notified every time you have a new post. You can also search for similar blogs in your niche and add comments (make these relevant and useful so as not to be tagged as SPAM) with a link back to your own site.

How can video clips drive traffic to your site? Please check out this article by Marketing Experiements Journal for answers.6. Internet viral marketing through social networking sites. You can market your site on social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Hi5 and many others which count many members because membership is free. The increasing number of people who are signing up for these networking sites make them great viral marketing tools.

In 2005 alone, MySpace reportedly garnered more page reviews than Google. MySpace and Facebook are the most widely used in North America and Europe. For business linkages, Linkedln (20 million registered users from 150 different countries) is considered by many as the best site for networking and manpower sourcing purposes. Facebook (124,000,000 members and counting) has become an important player for business networking in the internet with its online marketplace.

Interested in tapping social networking sites to make your business viral? To give you an insight into this great viral tool, please read this article, “A Step by Step Plan on How to Market Your Site on Facebook,” at Search Engine Guide.7. Internet viral marketing through link baiting. The internet marketing world is now abuzz with link baiting. As the words “link” and “bait” suggest, a link bait is any content or feature within a website that hooks visitors to add links to it from other sites.

Search Engine Guide’s Jennifer Laycock gives some comprehensive information about the relationship between link baiting and viral marketing in a 10-part article that starts with this one. Make sure you read the other articles in the series.8. Internet viral marketing through posting on forums. Posting on active and popular forums within your niche can generate respect as well as spread the word about your business. When posting on forums, refrain from blatantly advertising your site; just mention it, but make sure your posts are relevant to the topic being discussed.

10. Internet viral marketing through Squidoo. A user-generated website much like a blog but the articles are about a single topic, Squidoo’s interactive lenses include links to Amazon.com, Ebay, and other external sites. The lenses can contain Flickr photos, YouTube videos, Google maps, blogs, eBay auctions, and other relevant links. Squidoo currently enjoys a spot in the top 500 most visited sites in the world. The Top 100 lenses are arranged by topic, rank and group. Twenty-two different subject matters comprise the topic category. This includes Health and Medicine, Food & Cooking, and Business.